family blog, digital pictures

Protecting your family photos seems like such an obvious thing to do. Yet similar to backing up one's hard drive, so many people neglect to scan their pictures or use a picture scanning service until it is too late. There are a myriad of excuses for why you don't protect your old photos, but in reality it is one of the cheapest forms of insurance you will ever need.

The following are the top 5 reasons why it is essential to back up your pictures to digital:

1.       Fading, scratching and aging: Over time your pictures will fade and age. There is very little that can be done about this even for those who take the greatest care to preserve their paper photos. For those who are less careful it is also common to see scratches, tears, folds and other human caused maladies.

2.       Loss from natural disaster: Natural disasters such as fires as floods take their toll on more than people's homes and properties. They can also destroy your mot valued memories. When you have you pictures scanned and saved on a third party server such as Photobin.com's photo sharing service or a Photography website you know that your family's cherished memories are safe.

3.       Fixing discolorations such as red-eye and other camera errors. Today's technology allows for easy repair of certain types of camera or photographer caused errors and can make the pictures much more attractive and desirable.

4.       Picture Sharing and Printing: Scanning your photos and posting at a third party server or website allows you to share your photos easily with friends, family, social networks, etc' and also allows for family and friends to print their own copies without your assistance.

5.       Photo gifts: Sites like Photobin.com allow you to turn your pictures into cool gifts for the whole family. You can easily and cheaply turn photos into canvases, coffee mugs, and a whole variety of other fun trinkets.